Foreign Aid: Open Season

To many Americansboth Democratic and
Republicanforeign aid is a painful necessity at best, a downright
giveaway at worst. This feeling has encouraged Congress to make a
tradition of wielding an ax at presidential foreign aid requests.
Last week, President Kennedy asked Congress to appropriate $4.9 billion
for foreign aid in fiscal 1963, the biggest aid request since Dwight
Eisenhower's $5.1 billion whopper in 1953. Noting that it is
"always open season" on foreign aid, Kennedy insisted that
the sum was "vital to the interests of the U.S." and
"cannot, I believe, be further reduced." But after such
customary formalities, the...